AFTER THE COLD WAR: Views From Africa; Stranded by Superpowers, Africa Seeks an Identity

Published: May 17, 1992

Correction Appended

(Page 3 of 4)

"The Africans claimed they had their own form of African democracy. It was only toward the end of the 1970's we saw the one-party states were fraudulent. But we didn't want to tell the Africans the truth: democracy and human rights were not on anyone's agenda." The Leaders The Dying Days Of the Despots

In 1990 the State Department announced that aid to its old friends in Africa would be conditioned on progress toward democracy.

"The U.S. policy shift surprised African despots and thrilled African democrats," said Mr. Chege, the Kenyan political scientist.

Nowhere has the postwar policy been more evident than in Kenya, where after nearly a decade of one-party rule the Government has allowed the registration of political parties and the once reticent press is more outspoken.

The leader in the campaign to persuade Kenya to open up the political process was the American Ambassador, Smith Hempstone Jr. A journalist who had traveled across Africa on the eve of independence, Mr. Hempstone was for many years a cold war warrior who had made his views known as a newspaper columnist and editor of the conservative Washington Times. Tough Talk From U.S.

Almost immediately on arriving in Kenya in December 1989, Mr. Hempstone began speaking of the need for political pluralism. Whenever a dissident was arrested or a publication closed, Mr. Hempstone issued a statement condemning the Government.

Such public statements from the Americans -- there were many -- angered President Daniel arap Moi and encouraged the opposition. Mr. Hempstone is the first to acknowledge that his outspokenness would have been impossible during the cold war.

In country after country in the last two years, long-entrenched African leaders have been pushed aside. In some cases, rebels seized on the vulnerability of dictators marooned by their former patrons.

In Liberia, Samuel K. Doe, a favorite of Washington, was slain. In Ethiopia, Lieut. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, an ally of Moscow's, fled, as did Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia, who worked first with Moscow and then with Washington during his 21-year stewardship.

In other cases, previously untried democratic processes worked. In Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, President for 27 years, was overwhelmingly defeated in peaceful elections last October that brought to power Frederick Chiluba, a trade union leader Mr. Kaunda had kept in jail. In Benin, a former World Bank official, Nicephore Solo, was elected President. After 11 years of military rule in Ghana, Flight Lieut. Jerry Rawlings has bowed to calls for multiparty politics. Even in formerly Marxist Angola elections are scheduled for later this year. Zaire's Leader Hangs On

In Zaire, President Mobutu hangs on, despite the end of Western aid. But the opposition reacted joyously when Mr. Cohen issued a statement in the Zairean capital, Kinshasa, last November, saying, "Mobutu has lost legitimacy and should hand over the Government to an opposition-led transition."

The end of the cold war has given the United States an opportunity to be serious about promoting democracy in Africa, but having adopted a pro-democracy policy there it seems to be having difficulty carrying it out.

Six months ago, officials at the United States Agency for International Development started a search for a dozen African countries that were democratic enough to merit especially generous amounts of the $800 million available in foreign aid to Africa. So far, officials say, they have been unable to decide on the list.

Even in Ethiopia, where Washington has praised the fledgling Government's efforts at democracy and aid has been promised, it has yet to arrive. "Washington bureaucracy takes a long time to work," Mr. Cohen said. South Africa A Pariah No More, But a Source of Aid

There seems little dispute that the end of the cold war gave President F. W. De Klerk of South Africa the opportunity to release Nelson Mandela from prison and legalize the African National Congress. No longer could it be argued that the congress was being run from Moscow with the idea of turning South Africa into a Marxist state.

For its progress toward democracy, Washington has rewarded South Africa with its biggest hunk of aid on the continent: $80 million distributed among nongovernmental agencies working in social services, housing and education.

With the prospects of a black-controlled government in sight and the industrial might of South Africa still intact, many African nations are looking to it for their economic salvation. African politicians are rushing to Johannesburg with trade delegations hoping a prosperous South Africa will provide the engine for their countries' own development. From Bully to Benefactor

That, some analysts believe, is tantalizingly possible.

Already South Africa has transformed itself from bully to benefactor. Military aid to the Savimbi forces in Angola stopped in the late 1980's and South Africa permitted the independence of its former colony, Namibia. In Mozambique, the South Africans say, they have severed aid to the rebels.